Food Lion left our area a few years ago — and now is back? Good news or bad news?

I for one wish they hadn’t – come back that is.  So for me, it’s bad news.  I would have preferred any other store in that location.  They had their issues before and they have them now.   Their lure is low prices — but at what cost?  Annoying customers?

Last round, in approximately 1992 or ’93,  they left our area after the PrimeTime Live news reported a story about employee work issues (unpaid overtime being required, etc) and bleaching/remarking meat, seafood and pork as well as cleaning off the expiration dates on the dairy products – and so… who wasn’t glad to see them go?   If they’d stoop that low… what else would they do?   In this affluent area where the median income is over $100,000 per family, do we need any of that drama?   No, and  I believe that management made the smart decison to pack up and change store names to avoid the stigma of those allegations.  No one, at that time, that I knew  was ever going to touch any meat or seafood from a Food Lion again!   Food Lion even posted following that news report that some stores were reporting no meat sales at all.   So even if it wasn’t true in the store you shopped at, no one wanted to take that chance.  Ugly, ugly stuff – almost as ugly as the pink slime fiasco in the schools.  The decision was made to put in a “Bloom” store in our area, the upscale partner of the “Bottom Dollar” stores – both by the same owner/parent company as Food Lion.  These would then be the two new names the company would operate under in our area to avoid the uproar caused by that news report.  For the most part, it was a better shopping experience at Bloom, which had cleaner, remodeled stores, unobstructed aisles and a better overall grade of products.  The employees were nice, available and most helpful.  Some mistakes were made over the  almost 10 years they operated as a Bloom, but always dealt with professionally.

This round ~  different story all together.  And that has me wondering —  if this is the same parent company, was Bloom allowed to operate under different basic rules than Food Lion?  Or now that that have the name back are they going back to their old ways?

Specifically,  I wonder why they did it?  There is a new Walmart Superstore in the same shopping center, probably less than 500 ft. from this store, and also a Target Superstore in this same shopping center.  I would think those are two stores which would be in competition with Food Lion would have made them “reconsider”.   Obvious to a shopper and even with the competition right in front of their face,  they decided to change back to a Food Lion.  I know I still felt the stigma in the store when I visited it recently – and noticed that even all the employees have been changed.   Why do all the employees have to change when they “redo” stores —  wouldn’t that continuity help in the transition?  The new employees don’t know anyone who’s a regular, they don’t use any common sense when dealing with situations, and they never seem to have the “authority” to do anything about any issue that arises.

In case you are wondering, and I know you are… yes, I had a miserable experience at the “new” Food Lion in my area just the other day. It didn’t help that the heat was like 90 degrees outside and the humidity was close to it.  It didn’t help that it was at the end of my overheated work day that I was shopping either.  Heat, as you know stresses our bodies, and let’s just say that stress hit the breaking point on a issue at the Food Lion. It was so annoying to me that I will not be ever setting foot in that store again.

In the end, I made a complaint – not only verbally in the store that day,  but later online and by phone when the credit for the issue wasn’t posted till days after the charge for my groceries.  The manager to his credit, phoned me at home and later emailed me that he was sending me a gift card and a copy of the credit (because at that point I had no idea if they really even did it) as they never gave me a receipt for it.  But I am sorry – the tone of your store was obvious to me after my recent experience and I really will not ever be stepping foot in that particular store location again.

Please note: The opinions stated here are totally my own, from my own personal experiences at this store.

Waste is something I try to avoid at all costs.  I guess we all have our own unique and sometimes quirky ways to deal with it.  Today I am going to tell you a few of the ways we stopped wasting material in our home over the years, laughing allowed.

First and foremost – we try not to waste natural resources and recycle everything we can.  Lots of times that means a quick wash and then into the recycle bin.  At our house we have a recycle bin the size of our trash bin – and most weeks it’s fuller than the actual garbage.   I would say about of 75% is either recycled or fed to the wild animals who live with us on our 5 heavily wooded acres.

We reuse jars for things like homemade jellies and jams, and other canning.  The Ball® canning jar lids fit the quart mayonnaise jars perfectly.  We store nails, screws, buttons, anything small and in need of some organization so that there isn’t a drawer full of junk.  The huge jars we use as sort of a greenhouse when planting seedlings outside. They protect them from light frost and animals as well as storing heat right around the plant itself.  And as our last example, we use them for materials that need a container they cannot penetrate. Think of this as just a small jar of paint from the gallon for touch-ups, or some stain where you don’t need the entire container.  Or if you need to transport a small amount of anything to another location – glass is great for that.

We also recycle all our plastic containers, paper, newspapers, foil, used oil, wood, etc. and I hope you do too!  But do you actually reuse your Dixie® type paper plates.  Well, we do.  Anything that doesn’t really compromise the plate, we dust off the crumbs and pile them up to use again.  There’s also nothing wrong I understand with hanging up your teabags to dry and then reusing them either.  Sometimes you do have to use more than one “recycled bag” though to get a good cup of tea!

More on waste tomorrow, but I’ll leave with some things you might not think are reuseable or recycleable, but are!  How about metal hangers, dentures (for the precious metals they contain), cell phones,  phone books, hair, golf balls, bicycles, trophies, old computer parts, floppy disks, christmas lights, and keys.

Others in the Waste Series

Stopping Waste in Our Home Part 2 ~ Click here‎
The Goverment Wastes Your Tax Dollars ~ Click here
Stop Wasting Your Money ~ Click here

Cybercrime is rampant – but was P.T. Barnum right when he reputedly said there was a sucker born every minute?  I see examples of attempts at tricking people out of their information and merchandise cross my desk and screen every day.  These cyber criminals are crafty and tricky.  You get to really believe that they are whom they say they are – and comply with their requests.   Only to ~  a few minutes later realize it was a trick.  Then you scramble to try and cut your losses, if at all possible.

I have inner radar for such things – and am thankful for it, not everyone does.  I know that while I may have missed one or two opportunities in my lifetime, I am sure that I have saved myself from thousands.  Thousands you say…. and yes, I mean thousands.   Each and every day in my email or by phone, there are at least 10 different scam attempts.  For me erring on the side of caution is much better than the alternative. Listen or read very carefully – there is usually a tip-off in their communication.

Read more “Cybercrime – Was PT Barnum Right?”